Walking away
by imperialjournal
Summary: A guardsman in the 85th Vendoland regiment is deployed on a scouting mission to a potential colony/agriworld to colonize if deemed safe and clear of any chaos incursion. little did the small scouting force know of the unexpected circumstances and factions they would encounter that would complicate the mission, and the life of one man. O/C I do not own Warhammer 40k.
1. Chapter 1

Walking away

Chapter 1

Finding compassion

 **this is an updated version from the original first chapter**

 _It is the 41_ _st_ _millennium, Corporal Titus Arcega of the 85_ _th_ _Vendoland regiment, was deployed to a world called Lileathanir on a scouting mission aboard a frigate of only 200 gaurdsmen. The mission is to prospect the uncharted world for any chaos incursions on the local inhabitants whoever they may be so that the world may be deemed a possible agriworld for settlement. A peaceful mission, one may believe, but the horrors of the galaxy are always deceiving. Titus was only 21 years of age, slightly older than most of the corporals in the regiment. At 6'3 and 260 pounds, the corporal made a very imposing figure on the battlefield let alone the frigate. Known for his large stature and brute strength, Titus had earned himself a reputation that demanded respect, but at the same time it was honest-earned respect from the other soldiers due to his cool-headed demeanor and tendency to "take the rooks under the wing" attitude. Overall the man was a very respectable NCO. Little did he know that his deeper inner qualities were to be exposed for all who looked up to him, let alone in the face of his superiors, and that it would change the course of his life forever.  
_

 _forward operating base camp 1000 hours (unknown location)_

"Titus my man!" barked Pvt. Gommeringer from the tent across from Titus', "kind of a late start don't ya think man?" the private was the only lower level NCO to earn a close friendship with the corporal, this was all possible because the 18 year old private had once taken a bolt round from a chaos marine to defend the second in command of the squad. Titus was only just exiting his tent and adjusting to the humid air and the hot sun that plagued his vision when he quickly remembered to respond to his friend

"Goms! Gak, with a wakeup call like that you're going to wake up the chaos faction on this planet!" Titus fired back.

"nah that's just a bunch of hog wash; all that chaos presence bull" countered Goms.

"theres a reason we were sent here private",

"yeah your probably right…tits",

"call me that again Goms, and im gonna have you cleaning the staging area with your tongue until we get attacked by chaos!"

joked The older superior one.

"yessssir!" goms threw his friend a sloppy backwards salute.

"grab your gear Goms, were rollin out in 10 mikes to take our rotation on patrol,

"hah says the guy who woke up an hour late!" Goms said with a smartass attitude, by the time he could finish, Titus was already walking to the mess tent to grab a few breakfast and dinner rations before marching out.

 _Initially the patrols were to scout the 20 KM radius from the base camp for any threats or for any local inhabitants to contact with, or to engage as hostiles with, Titus was hoping the former._

"CPL, your on point" ordered sergeant hawthorn. Hawthorn was the highest ranking soldier among the troop of 50 guardsmen.

Titus always loved being on point, it meant he could clear his head and have time to himself to regain sanity or to just enjoy silence, it was his own therapy more like. As the guardsman sprinted ahead the squad by about a click, he slowed down, realizing he had probably ran well beyond the standard distance of his squad, he decided it was time to have his skipped breakfast, and enjoy the scenery. Lileathanir was a beautiful planet, lush with vegetation, trees that masked most of the landscape, rivers and lakes that covered the surface leaving the dry land separated in miniature islands. He always was a soldier to appreciate nature, he could hear the song birds in the distance sing together in unison and harmony, it was private times like this where only he would let out his more "gentle" and peaceful side to his personality.

It was only minutes until he decided it was time to move on and scout ahead another click, his advance around the 20 click radius ahead of the squad continued on for 5 hours, but the march didnt faze him. It was soon dusk, and he was nearing the tail end of his squads patrol route on map. Suddenly he could hear cracks of lasfire behind him, and immediately his SGT barked over his vox "Arcega! Rendezvous back on our position! We've made contact with…(static)…dark…hostiles…(static)…HURRY!" was all that came out of the vox when Titus turned around, set his Lasgun to full auto and attached his bayonet on its lug and sprinted as fast as he could back to his squad which took only 2 minutes. As he neared his friendly soldiers, the sounds of battle became even louder, the enemy fire that masked the cracks of human screams and lasbolts was distinguishable to any free race of the galaxy. Titus felt a wave of sheer horror and fear come over him as he entered the skirmish, the fact that it was becoming darker out by nature did not help his case nor his squads. It had appeared that his squad had been ambushed by the Dark eldar, and were engaged in melee combat.

"what?! Them? Here?" thought Titus as he ran into the frey.

The only reason the dark eldar were anywhere outside of commoraggh was to take slaves and inflict horrors on whoever got in their way. The platoon of 50 men were losing numbers quickly, and the melee was brutal, Titus thrusted his bayonet into a wych that was overtaking Gommeringer, he then went into full alert and looked around unloading his magazine into whoever he saw that had spikes or stood taller than him. A warrior shot poisonous blades from his catapult landing one on Titus' flak armor, good thing he inserted carapace plates into the slots before the patrol because it just saved his life. This only served to anger the hulk of a man, he lunged forwards with his empty Lasrifle and thrusted and slashed and peried the attacks of the alien and eventually both were knocked aside by a Krak grenade explosion. Titus was the first to get up and shake off the minor concussion effect and took this advantage to overpower the alien with brute strength, even though normal humans on average were weaker and slower than the dark eldar, Titus was an exception. He roared as he charged forward and tackled the alien to the ground and like a wrestler, picked him up and threw him across the battle field and then proceeded to jump at him and choke him to death, the alien dodged out of the way and came down on Titus with a speed kick to the helmet, this left the trooper dazed, the Dark eldar warrior was impressed by the ability of the human before him, but decided it was time to end their little dance, he drew his blade, and leaped at the guardsman with unhuman speed, Titus thought he was done for, but he found the courage to make one last stand against impossible odds, he charged the eldar open fisted to close the distance, He suprisingly managed to grab hold of the warriors wrists just in time for him to deliver a menacing blow to his face with his open palm, this nearly broke the neck of the dark one, with a yell of pain he clawed at the human, leaving a gash across his arm before dropping the blade. Titus seized the opportunity to finish off the alien with a rock nearby to crush his skull.

Titus continued to use whatever weapons he found lying around to join the rest of his squad in fighting for their lives. Soon after his tangle with the alien, the lesser alien warriors who took sight of their Kin being brutally killed avoided the corporal and were fleeing to engage other targets away from the hulk of a human. The battle only lasted 2 minutes, and the small band of Dark eldar attackers of only about 10 had all perished leaving the remaining guardsman squad down to 10 men. Only the sgt, Gommeringer, 7 privates and Titus had survived the onslaught.

"check for survivors!, wounded go with Private Roberts back to base, the rest with me and Titus, we need to continue to scout ahead" ordered hawthorn

As the 5 able bodied men continued on, hawthorn reported back to HQ about the presence of dark eldar on the planet, HQ had informed the SGT that this only meant one thing, that there was a population on the planet that they were after to enslave. Now it was the imperials priority to investigate who the population was incase they were imperials. Their main orders were changed to holding out and digging in at the base until the rest of the regiment was deployed to fight the dark eldar, meanwhile Titus' squad was to recon and fall back once they had found any intel on the enemy staging area or ships.

"Titus, your on point again, 5 clicks, go" "yes sergeant". as Titus reached the 5 click mark, he came to the end of the tree line, he looked out into the vast plains of the province, he could see a village near by about a kilometer away (click), it was 1900 hours now, he looked through his binocs with night vision and from what he could tell, they were not human, they were similar to the dark eldar, yet..lighter? more peaceful looking, and certainly not imposing or hostile appearing at all. They seemed like harmless farmers. He could see a male and a female, almost human looking working a farmland with children running into the grains having fun with the farm animals. Titus felt a slight hint of peace when he looked upon the settlement, it was only a small village, probably of about 100. he looked into the sky when he heard the familiar hum of a dark eldar space craft flying through the sky above the farm, suddenly the ground shook slightly as he could see one of the dark eldar's shuttle-like space crafts circling the settlement awaiting to touch down, it probably only held a small squad of warriors he thought, enough to enslave the helpless village indeed, he looked back to the settlement, he could see the inhabitants fleeing from the sight and into the dwellings, Titus knew that what he did at that moment would remain on his conscience for a millennia. Imperial doctrine drilled into him for 2 years would have him ignore the farm, retreat and warn his squad of more eldar to only have orbital command bombard the coordinates of the new discovered settlement where the dark eldar were located, along with the other xenos. But his conscience shot at his heart, and he felt the urge to vox Hawthorn, and have them double time it to his positon to fight the invaders and protect the colony. Yes, he would choose the path of compassion now, whether he be court marshalled later or possibly even executed for aiding xenos, he did not care, he only saw that there were innocents in harms way, and it would be his responsibility to defend innocent blood, even at the cost of his own.

"we've always got a choice" said Titus to himself as he closed his eyes, pushed his Vox to relay coms to his Sgt.

"SGT, on me double time!, ive located more dark eldar and am engaging"

"ten four" acknowledged Hawthorn

Titus began running towards the settlement as fast as he could to slow the enemy down to allow the eldar exodites to seek refuge and for his squad to repel the invaders. He ran to the edge of the farm where he last saw the 2 children running around, the frigate was touching down and one by one, vicious looking foe exited the crude looking space craft to claim new slaves and do horrors to many. By the Good of all innocents in this universe, he would not let that happen while he held his rifle in hand. The advancing enemy was only 100 meters away when he began to open fire on them with short concentrated bursts, this surprised the dark eldar, they returned fire to the general direction, away from the refuge of the inhabitants, he was drawing their focus on him as planned, there were only 3 who exited the craft.

A risky move, but it allowed his squad time to back him up and for the inhabitants to flee. he was soon taking heavy fire and his squad was seconds away from joining him in battle, Titus thought for a moment he was done for (for the second time in one day) as he was quickly being overrun and the enemy was closing the distance at a fast pace. Suddenly he could hear and see lasbolts fly over his head and hit their targets closing in on him before it was too late.

"we need to flank!" yelled Hawthorn.

"Goms with me! Rest of you lay down a base of fire!" ordered Titus.

The corporal and his comrade moved into the settlement fearful of engaging any enemies they encountered at close quarters, they climbed a grain tower that overlooked the farmland and set up a flanking position to pin down the enemy at their frigate to prevent them from advancing. It was working, no one in the squad had been hit yet, and Titus climbed down the ladder to continue tactically advancing on the frigate to push them back. Hawthorn and the base of fire team had moved only 30 yards from the frigate and were taking out any resistance from exiting the craft with heavily concentrated las fire which was enough to kill even the mighty alien warriors. With Goms providing overwatch and the base of fire team supressing the frigate, Titus was the first to enter the shuttle with the rest of his squad minus goms in tow. By now most of the raiding party had been wiped out, and Titus was guessing that only the pilots remained as the squad had eliminated the 6 warriors who exited the shuttle, As the squad cleared out the corridors of the ship, it seemed that no one had remained, they cautiously made their way to the bridge. "looks like nobodies home" said one of the privates while letting his guard down. Moments later, his chest imploded with a blade sticking right out of it and the man dropped dead and an alien soldier stood over his body with a menacing grimace across his face and a nasty looking blade at hand, "the kabal of white flames will claim your pathetic kind among these feeble eldar outcasts monkeigh!" screeched the alien in disgust. The squad made no hesitation and lit up the room with lasfire, this particular xeno must have been the landing party leader, as he dodged the las bolts with incredible speed and sliced open the chest of a nearby private, he gurgled in pain and soon fell to the floor lifeless.

one private managed to squeeze off a bust into the aliens back, this stunned him but he turned and thrusted his blade into the guardsman and lifted him off the floor, the only look the private gave was one of complete terror before the life left his eyes. the rest of the squad, down to 8 men unloaded on the xeno, and obliterated him in seconds.

"clear" huffed Hawthorne.

"now who are the people in this settlement?" asked one of the privates

"Eldar" said the sgt with disgust

"hmm, imperial doctrine says we are to eliminate all xenos on sight" added one of the other privates in monotone

"Sergent, please, enough lives have been lost today, why do we need to shed the blood of innocents?" inquired Titus

"Corporal are you sympathizing with xenos? if I order you to purge them then you will purge, or you are a heretic" stated the sgt

titus remained silent as the squad exited the ship and detonated charges to blow it up.

 _ten minutes ago, POV switch_

Lithuwen, one of the children who was playing in the field of only 10 years of age in relativity to human years had just ran inside the farmhouse with her family. Her and the rest of the family were huddled by the window and absolutely terrified of what would happen to them once the dark ones took them. All they could do was hide, and pray to Isha for comfort.

as soon as the shuttle doors opened, the first slaver stepped out. this was enough for Lithuwen to gasp and let her tears fall down in fear of the inevitable.

suddenly, she hear a distinct sound of laser fire which was foreign to her, but not of the dark ones. soon she saw beams of red laser impact the area of the shuttle, and that horrible monster of an alien. she felt her heart jump for hope as she and her family searched over the horizon in the dusk for the unknown soldier firing at the dark eldar. soon her eyes landed on a humanoid wielding a rifle, he looked primitive, with a primitive weapon, but he was a large man, almost as tall as the dark monster he was firing at. it was at this moment that she knew that she and her family had a chance of survival once this hero came into save her from the monsters.

soon more of the primitive soldiers appeared and were actually killing off the invaders. Shortly after, the large one followed by his fellow soldiers entered the shuttle, presumably to destroy it Lithuwen thought. minutes later, only 8 of them exited the ship, having 10 entered originally. she felt a hint of sadness when she knew that 2 of them had died. they were walking towards her home, when suddenly she ran to the door and opened it to run out and hug her thought to be "saviors".

"Isha's sake! Lithi, do not go out there! those are Imperials and they will muder us all! we need to hide!" yelled her mother.

before she could hear her mother, the little girl ran out to greet the guardsmen, with her father and mother in tow to stop her before it was too late...

 _POV switch, present time_

Eldar could be seen tentatively exposing themselves from the confines of their homes and structures, unsure of the human's intentions, were they to welcome their saviors? Or to fear being slaughtered?

As Hawthorn was walking towards the village, it was clear that he meant to do what the rest of the squad had imagined, he was going to purge the xenos from the settlement. This would be muder, and Titus would not allow it, the rest of the men hesitated on following their sergeant in committing the atrocity. "Hawthorn stand down!" roared Titus, the sergeant ignored him and cocked his lasgun in determination, without emotion. One of the naïve eldar children ran up to the armed human with hopes to thank her liberator, when she saw that hawthorn had taken aim with his rifle at her, her look of thankfulness turned to fear, and then tears knowing what her fate was going to be. "I WILL SHOOT IF YOU TOUCH THAT CHILD HAWTHORN!" this time Titus was enraged at what he was about to see.

"Corporal stand down, if you stop me, you are commit heresy, punishable by death in the imperium!" Yelled Hawthorn

"And if you shoot this child you commit murder" countered Titus

"Are you gonna shoot me, trooper?" said hawthorn disbelievingly

he turned around and was about to commit the act, when suddenly a hole in his chest appeared as vaporized flesh and superheated blood splatted out the man as he dropped like a stone. The child opened her eyes to see the man drop, she then turned to the large one who saved her life, soon her parents had caught up to her and were drawing her away from the soldiers to a safe distance of the confused situation

The men turned their guns on Titus out of reaction and yelled at him in unison questioning why he killed Hawthorn, just as Gommeringer made the choice to defend his friend and aimed his rifle at the squad while yelling and defending his friend with his own voice. While the standoff continued, Titus Arcega, corporal of the 85st Vendoland, servant of the emperor, had just killed his superior in defense of a xeno. Forfeit, heretic, traitor were all the words that came to his head as he stood there, dropped his las rifle and dropped to his knees out of shock.

Gommeringer stood his ground with his hands shaking on his lasrifle yelling at the top of his lungs, quivering in fear of being executed by his squad. One of the privates kicked Titus on his back and held his bayonet to his face.

"TITUS WHY! FOR A XENO? I OUGHTA SHOOT YOU MYSELF YOU TRAITOR, YOU KILLED SARGE!" yelled the private

Gomeringer took this chance to unload his rifle into the man before he could harm his friend.

the other men did not have the balls to fight back and challenge him. In an instant, they all dropped their rifles and froze.

suddenly, the men all dropped one by one as super heated chunks of flesh began exploding out of their chests and skulls. Only Titus and Gommeringer had survived, they look across the field to see an eldar man with Hawthorns lasrifle in hands.

instantly, Titus stood up and gommeringer aimed his rifle at the alien in fear of his own life and his friends. Titus smacked the rifle out of his friends hands

"what are you doing!" yelled the private

"if he sees we mean no harm to him we may have a chance" said Titus

"your crazy, and really crazy after what you did and made me do to save your ass!" yelled Goms

"were dunfor you know that mate?, because of your act were now enemies of the imperium and can never go back" he continued

"Silence monkeigh!" ordered the eldar male "how do I know I can trust you wont murder me and my family if I let you live?" he demanded in low gothic

"We just saved your lives!" yelled Gommeringer

"let them live daddy!, dont hurt our heros!" the little girl seen before ran and pleaded to her father in her native tongue.

"young one, back to your mother!" yelled her father.

unexpectedly, the little girl ran into titus' chest, he froze.

"thank you, whoever you are, hero of my village" whispered the girl with tears coming down her eyes.

Titus' heart sank immediately, any thought of hatred to this xeno race had been washed away in an instant. he returned the hug and then told the very trusting girl in the most soothing voice he could muster which he thought impossible considering being a soldier "I will always protect the lives of innocents, no matter who they are, or what race they may be young one"

"By Isha!" gasped her mother who was behind her father.

suddenly, her father lowered the weapon and approached the two still in embrace.

"you have earned the trust of my daughter, and now my family, human, It has been centuries since I have ever seen one of your kind, and You are the only one I have ever seen to show us mercy and defend our people, you have my thanks human" said the father.

"what the hell just happened..." asked Goms out loud.

X

 **authors note: now I know that my genre says romance, and that part is still yet to come in the upcoming chapter, i am not going to spoil how it happens, but at least now you know when that plot twist is coming in. and obviously it is going to be between one of the Eldar and the protagonist you have all figured out by now after reading the genre.**

 **Please dont judge too harshly, this is my first attempt at a 40k story chapter. All the the characters are O/C**

 **please leave constructive criticism and try not to be too harsh. C**

 **my next update will be soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Heart of Golden virtue

 **Exodite village 2100 hours**

It was late evening, but it the starlight and bioluminescence of the river that flowed through the village with alien-coloured lanterns of some source of fuel were illuminating the corridors, buildings and fields. The burning wreckage of the shuttle behind Titus and James was enough for the Eldar male before them to make out their features in detail, even under the night sky.

James was still dumbfounded by the events that had just happened in the last half of the day to say the least. His friend had just committed treason and let alone heresy under imperial doctrine and law, his entire platoon was dead, he himself now a traitor by making the choice to remain loyal to his friend even above the holy imperium. Emotions were running wild in his head as he was trying to comprehend the events.

Titus took note of his dead squadmates lying behind him for a moment, he knew a couple of them. Not enough to bond with them like James, but they use to be friendlies nonetheless; fellow guardsmen. This guilt would have ruined the life of any other soldier in the imperium, but for some reason it was outweighed by his justification and conviction of his inner values and morals. He knew that from this point onward, his old life was forfeit, he could never go back to the imperium alive. Now he knew he had to follow through with his life decision.

"Goms, we can't go back" Titus turned to his friend and stated

"Titus, we can't leave the men lying here like this" was all his friend replied disregarding his remark

Titus knew this, even though these men turned on him and Gommeringer, they were once fellow soldiers, and deserved the respect of a burial, not to mention the disease and horrible sight of their remains in the property of the Eldar.

"sir, may we bury the bodies? The sight of the dead is no sight for any child to bear witness to" asked Titus to the Eldar male, with caution to the child.

"You may call me Delran, and yes, you may burry your kin, the dark ones will be burned by our people" replied the Eldar.

Lithuwen looked at the dead bodies in the field with a scared look on her face that no child should bear, she was petrified by the sight, and she quickly ran back to her mother to escape the battle ground.

After the clean up it was 0100 hours, and the duo of ex-imperial soldiers knew that HQ would be attempting to locate their current whereabouts, and the status of the squad. This made things ugly, and Titus knew he had to come up with a plan that would not compromise either himself and James, and the entire village.

"Goms, you've been loyal to me for years now, where do you stand now?" asked Titus with hope

James hesitated for a minute before making a choice, but before he could speak up, the unthinkable happened. Immediately and unexpectedly, The Vox that the two had picked up off of the sarge buzzed to life, and it was the commissar over the channel whose voice spoke up. The two soldiers froze in terror, unsure of what to say " _all recon and patrols..(static) this is the commissar, we are….(static) overrun by the Dark eldar and command has issued the order to pull out and retreat to orbit, there have been (static) engaged in low orbit…return to base ASAP, you have 2 hours before the base camp evacuates, the Valkyries will wait no longer than the time issued, may the…..be with you"_ then the vox turned into static from then on. More adversity had taken its turn in the lives of the two men once again.

"Titus, I do not regret saving your life, but we now need to save both of ours and will have to live with what happened on this planet from now on…We need to be returning to base camp ASAP or else we are stranded" panicked James.

"Go, I am no longer in service of the imperium, not after committing heresy. But you were acting in the defence of your friend, there is no loyalty greater than to lie down one's life for his friend, I think that even the emperor himself would pardon you for the man you killed in my defence. Go now and live your life, it is not just that you should have to pay for the decision that I made, but I am forever in your debt friend" Titus told his friend in a way that only a true friend would.

"It has been an honor, my brother, I swear on my soul that I will not sell you out to the imperium, farewell Titus" said James in a lowly voice

"Emperor be with you, brother" replied Titus in the same manner as they saluted each other one last time forever. Before his best friend double timed in across the fields and into the treeline before looking back at his friend one last time.

"Human, I have no choice but to evacuate my people now that we know more of the dark ones are invading our planet, I will now make a distress call to the nearest craftworld eldar fleet to evacuate us. You may remain with us until they arrive, but I will defend your case once they arrive and hopefully they will believe me and spare your life, but I cannot guarantee what will happen to you following their decision" noted Delran.

Titus knew that the craftworld eldar were more hostile to the imperium than the exodites were, and that the chance they would listen to reason in regards to a human were slim.

"I will stay and await my fate, It is no longer in my hands, I can never go back to the imperium, but I will live with what fate has in store for me now; it is out of my control" titus replied humbly

"hmm, you have an admirable character trait similar to that of my kin, and quite opposite of what I expect from a human, what is your name, so that I may tell stories to our people of the man that saved my village" asked Delran

"Titus Arcega, former Corporal of the Imperium of man, now a free man" answered Titus in monotone.

As the night went on, Titus had been taken into the house of Delran to await the Craftworld Eldar arrival to evacuate the village. _The emperor has probably forsaken me now, I am an enemy to the imperium, they may never know that but my heart always will_ were the last thoughts in Titus' head before the front door was quickly opened, and In stepped Delran with a look of pity in his eyes, this confused Titus, but then he was followed by 4 more eldar, these ones were clad in bone coloured armour, 2 of them he recognized to be the feared howling banshee aspect warriors with green trim and crimson main behind their helms, the third was no doubt a typical guardian armed with a standard shuriken catapult, and then the fourth was indeed the farseer. They all had iconic symbols etched in their armour, they were magnificent up close Titus thought, but he dreaded immediately in the face of what may become of his fate.

"You there, monkeigh, you are the one who has supposedly saved my outcast kin from the dark ones, you are to be placed in our custody aboard our fleet for interrogation, your fate will be decided by our seer council, but for now you will obey me and forfeit your weapons. You may keep your personal belongings and insignia. Your imperial forces have engaged the dark kin in the province, and this has provided us with the ability to evacuate our kin, and now you will comply with our demands human, or we will be forced to end your primitive life" ordered the female farseer in the sternest voice. Suddenly the two banshees escorted him outside, Titus looked around and could see hundreds of civilians being ushered by more eldar warriors to their ghostships. He was then forced into one of the loading bays along with the Delrans family and the farseer with her escorts. They departed immediately into the night sky, and all around through the window there were miniature skirmishes between imperial and dark eldar forces, Titus looked to where his base camp was, he could see it all up in flames but with no imperial craft or personnel present, this brought relief to Titus as he knew his friend must be up in orbit now if he had survived the attack. Titus just sat there, took off his helmet and dropped his head in exhaustion from the day's events, and from the shock of having his life turned upside down on him.

Lithuwen was watching him the whole time from her families side of the transport, she ran over to him from across the bay, and immediately the two banshees next to him put out their hands to prevent the child from nearing him, she ignored them and placed a hand on the back of his own, this startled the imperial, his head shot up in surprise to see the little girl once again infront of him, she then took his helmet from his hands and he did not resist.

"what is this meant for?" she asked in the most oblivious childlike voice full of quizzical emotion.

Titus smiled and answered "it's a helmet, its supposed to protect me in battle" answered Titus in a low tone.

"its heavy!" she attempted to put it over her head.

"I don't need it anymore, do you want it?" asked Titus in his best play like voice in front of the child.

Lithuwen smiled, and accepted the humans offer with it still on her head.

"you look a lot like my people but why do you have round ears and short hair?" blurted the child.

Titus did not even know how to respond to such a statement.

"do not talk to the child monkeigh" one of the banshees ordered in a condescending tone in her mechanical voice.

Lithuwen bounced back to her seat with her family with the helmet still on her head. The short conversation between the child and the former soldier was enough for Titus to get his mind off of its previous dwellings. The rest of the transport was quiet, with the engines humming and the pilot relaying commands and transmissions over the network. Soon they were in orbit over the planet, and numerous imperial Valkyries could be seen exiting the planet's surface with the frigate that he arrived on heading into hyperspace, they seemed to ignore the eldar transports. He could see Dark eldar battleships entering the planet's atmosphere in the distance, luckily away from the eldar cruisers they were heading to.

The Ghostship docked with the dragonship that held the same colours as the armor of the eldar who captivated him. As soon as the shuttle doors opened, he felt a large smack on the back of his head and his vision went black.

Titus woke up in a daze, all he could feel was the pain in his head from the blow earlier. He looked around to figure out his surroundings. He was in a circular room with nothing but a sleeping mat and a sink with a bathroom appliance like equivalent to a human holding cell. It was small, but looked much more hospitable than an imperial one for sure. Moments later, an Eldar banshee walked in with her helmet in hand, Titus could only look at her with a dropping jaw and wide eyes. She was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, no matter how alien she was to him, she had brunette hair past her shoulders, stood 3 inches shorter than he did with a strong but lithe body. She had exotic looking cobalt coloured eyes with a slightly pointed nose with angular features like the rest of her kin along with the notable pointed ears, she looked to be of 19 in human standard years. She gave him a hesitant smile at the sight of his surprise. It was unexpected to say the least for him.

Behind her stepped in the farseer. She was a much older looking woman, she had white hair with silver eyes and had her hair done up in an alien fashion, she had the aura of a respected leader that demanded respect.

"Titus Arcega, Former corporal of the 85th vendoland, heretic of the imperium of man, do you know why you are here?" she asked in her stern but musical voice.

"Because I made a choice to defend innocent lives" answered the defeated man.

" No, you are here because of my extended grace, the eldar of Biel-Tan have encountered many imperials and have entered into hostile relations with them on every account, we are not as forgiving or patient with your kind as I am being with you" said the farseer.

Titus was not fazed by the remark, he only wanted to know his fate.

"you will remain here while I negotiate with our council to decide on your fate, it will take 3 day cycles. Until then, you will be under constant eye and I will leave my most trusted companion Shilyth. You will obey her, and she will look after you In my stead, we are in route for the craft world" was all that she said before exiting leaving the banshee behind.

There was an awkward moment of silence between the two for what felt like a millennia before the banshee broke the silence.

"you are fond of children aren't you Human?" asked Shilyth in a beautiful, feminine musical voice which surprised him to hear such a sound.

 _She must have been the other banshee who escorted me…she was behind me when…she knocked me out…._ Were the thoughts of Titus when he heard her speak, he had figured this out because of her voice being distinct from the other one in the transport.

"why did you knock me out?" was the first thing titus demanded from the girl.

"You are an enemy of my people, we saw it as necessary to prevent you from learning the interior of the ship back to the docking bay; the only route of escape should you attempt to" answered the banshee in monotone.

Titus took this in with reason, and decided to answer her first question before further testing her patience, he had nothing to lose from letting out personal information of himself, he was harmless to them anyway, plus he needed someone to get his mind off of everything, and the girl before him seemed to serve that purpose now.

"Yes, she reminds me of my sister back home" answered the former imperial with a hint of nostalgia in his voice as he knew what made her press the question noticing the little girl interact with him earlier.

Shilyth felt a sting of empathy in hearing this. She was not unkind like the other banshee who escorted him.

"I heard the report of what you did to defend that young one, you have a golden heart, imperial" said the Eldar girl.

By now Titus had decided to throw away his skepticism of the alien in front of him for good now, and made the choice to get along with her and saw no harm in it.

"please, call me Titus"

"Hm, Titus" Shilyth tried rolling the foreign sounding name off her tongue again, this slightly poked at the core of Titus and made him uneasy at first, but deep down he enjoyed hearing his name in her alien accent.

"and Shilyth, never heard of that name before" said the large man.

POV switch

 _She found him to be strong, intimidating, seasoned looking. But Tall, Handsome, and most of all, she could see right through his external features and knew his soul to be a kind one. She never took to finding aliens alluring in the slightest, but now before her, stood a man whom drew her into finding that one quality of kindness, attractive. He looked to be in his 20s in human years, taller than her by a few fingers, he had jet black short hair with interesting eyes that were unique to most human soldiers she had seen, they were almost shaped like her Kin, but had light hazel iris', his stern Jaw line covered in light stubble, facial hair, such an alien concept for her, but not unattractive to her. She had never felt these emotions in her inner being ever before, not in her 190 years of existence had she felt her heart drawn to anothers, let alone a humans._

 **Authors note: there you have it peeps, chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave feedback on what you did and didn't like along with constructive criticism. Till next time mates. C**

 **Imperial journal .**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Walking Away

 **Authors note: Hey everyone, I hope you are all enjoying this relatively new story, and if you are, then please review so that I know I have a good audience so I can have this story worth continuing, even if you just want to review as a guest that's ok! Any encouragement helps! I am currently in training camp on my university football varsity team, so I am literally using any time free away from practice or meetings to write for you guys! I promise I will keep the ball rolling as the semester starts up, but please, I could use some more encouragement from ya'll! Cheers. C**

 **P.S if there are any suggestions on what you would like to see happen with the characters, IE: plot twist, character change, then please PM me and I will cater to it as best as possible!**

For whatever the reason, The Eldar warrior infront of Titus was acting oddly friendly to her prisoner, this was strange in his eyes because of the known tension between their two races. He was still slightly skeptical in her motives for doing so, so he decided to play along but with caution, even though there was virtually nothing he saw that the eldar could gain from him. He did not hold any resentment to her race, nor did he find any reason to with her, she was just a person whom he just met in his eyes. Titus was always the least judgemental and stereotyping of all the men in his regiment, somehow he earned respect while being open minded at the same time. Needless to say that this quality came in handy right now in making things easy for him to converse with his alien captors.

"So what exactly are you to do with me as your prisoner?" inquired Titus

"I will have frequent check ins while questioning you as well as give you your meals throughout the day and night cycles as the honored farseer has ordered me to. If you are being as compliant as you are now during the duration of your stay, then you will have an easier time, Titus." she answered in her low tone.

"For three days eh? Think you can handle me for that long girl? I don't know, I seem to get a little ansy when Im cooped up in a room for too long" beamed Titus in a light hearted big man tone.

"Only you can be the judge of that, your quality of stay will be directly correlated with how you decide to comply with our conduct"

"hm, well at least your giving me the heads up to play nice"

"You're speech is strange" was all she replied with

"Says the one speaking my language, how come your kind communicate as if you are all singing songs?" inquired the quizzical imperial like a child.

Shilyth held her head up with pride as she explained "We eldar are lightyears beyond the evolutionary stages of most races in the galaxy, and we have developed our speech to the fullest of our potential"

"Interesting, I probably sound like an animal to your kind"

"You sound gruff, masculine, ungraceful and guttural compared to the tongue of our males. Now, my turn for the questions. How come imperial speech patterns are full of slang and misconceptions with improper use of vocabulary?" the eldar girl beamed as though she were an expert on linguistics.

"Its how we talk. Aint nothing to it, us humans find it easier to communicate if we aren't all robotic in our speech and lighten up a little with emotion. It allows for a flow in conversation" he replied.

"It is interesting to learn more about the differences in our people. Now tell me this, how come your kind are so brutal to my own or any other race that is not human? I have heard of the many rumors of how savage humanity can be" she inquired in all her arrogance with a little bit of am angry temperament showing.

"Do I look like a savage to you? Have I been brutal to you or your people?" Titus shot back.

She was taken aback by this, she hesitated momentarily before answering "I..I did not mean to.." was all she could say in a low tone voice, almost immediately regretting her previous tone before soon being cut off by Titus.

"We are all different, there are many of us and it may seem to be the case that we are all evil and wish to harm all other races in the galaxy, but within each of us, there is an individual, I made that choice down on that planet to alter the course of my life because I was…different" he began that sentence with a passion to defend himself and humanity, but then he couldn't help but reveal a hint of sorrow with how he ended it.

Before he knew it, he was angry, in a full blown rant that began to make the banshee nervous, and somewhat scared of his temper coupled with the sheer size of the human did not help things. "Why am I here dammit!, because I decided that killing innocents is wrong. I am now light-years away from my regiment, I have lost my best friend, my battle brother forever! Perhaps I may never even see a human soul ever again, or worse, for all I know I may become a slave to the ones who imprison me right now just like what would have happened to that little girl if I had not intervened with my squad! All because I was different! Because I chose to walk a path I judged to be right at the time! And this is how I am repaid!? Only because I am a human…because I am different!. I walked away from a path that would have led to perpetual torment on my soul if I had treaded it any longer and let the Dark eldar slavers have their way with that village….on my soul I could not have let that happen, so I treaded a new path. One that I judged to be right above all else, one that has alienated me from my entire race in my heart! And I now dare be imprisoned by the ones whom I aided out of the good of all innocents in this universe!" by now Titus was angry, sad, and with his eyes becoming reddened a small sheen of fluid was building up around his tear ducts.

Shilyth was now backed against the wall with her pistol drawn and aimed at the raging hulk of a man. She was indeed frightened because of his rage even though he was unarmed and she held the power. She had no idea with how to respond.

"The only reason I have not teared your heart out, eldar, Is because…." he hesitated before choosing his words wisely and momentarily snapping out of his rage "is because you are the only one who has shown me kindness since I have left that planet other than the child" he finished with his voice much lower and absent of the anger that he held moments before. He instantly regretted the first part of that sentence when he noticed the girl before him whimpering and her hands shaking out of fear on her pistol aimed at him. He did not realize he had such an effect on those around him, let alone the one whom he focused all his anger towards, and how she felt threatened, it was not her fault he is where he is, and he panicked in seeing her like this, afraid of him even though she was an alien.

"Please don't hurt me" were the only words that could escape Shilyth's lips as she quivered.

Titus could not explain to himself why he let himself loose like he did, he probably just needed to vent, and he had almost taken it too far. He now felt guilty knowing the expense of the girl on the other side of the room, he did not know why, but his emotions of rage and anger automatically switched and he felt like comforting her and apologizing, like a hurricane vanishing and transforming into a sunset.

"Forgive me, Shilyth, It is not your fault that I am captive aboard your vessel, that I am walking away from a path to tread another…forgive me that I had frightened you. I promise I will never harm you" he pleaded with a soothing voice as he began walking slowly and cautiously towards the armed banshee.

She flinched as she held the pistol in faltering shaking hands as he neared her, her mind shouted at her to shoot him but something inside of her pleaded for her to allow him to live and instead comfort the broken soul of a man who has just had his life flipped upside down on him, regardless that he is human. Before she knew it he was just inches from her, her hands and dropped down along with the firearm, and he stood there with sad eyes pointed to the floor, she looked up at him in pity, and before they knew it she instantly wrapped her arms around the large man and comforted him with tears still in her own eyes.

"There is nothing to forgive, Titus, you have had your life taken away from you, your close ones, your own people you may never see again, you have every right to feel what you are feeling" she reasoned.

He hesitated, but then wrapped his arms around the girl in a tight embrace, pulled her head into his chest and stroked the back of her head gently.

"I am sorry I frightened you, daughter of Isha" was all he said in a low comforting tone. The last word he remembered from the little girl Lithuwen whose mother uttered the name of their Goddess on the planet.

Shilyth was taken aback by what he just said. This made her feel even more comfortable in his arms and she began stroking his back as they stood there locked in embrace for what seemed to be an eternity.

Shilyth was the first to break the silence "you really do have a heart of gold, Titus, you have shown me that vulnerability is not a weakness, but a strength to be admired"

"And you have shown me compassion that has broken down the walls of hatred between our two species, if only between the two of us right now" he spoke in a genuine tone.

"You have already accomplished that when you stepped in front of that child to defend the innocents of this war torn galaxy"

They remained in embrace until Shilyth was summoned to speak with the Farseer,

"I will return in a couple of hours" was the last thing she said as she left his arms with grace and gave him a comforting smile over her shoulder as she exited the room.

Titus just stood there, in disbelief of what just happened. He had indeed walked away from his old path if what had just happened in the last hour was real. And real it was as he stood there feeling a part of him leave as the girl vanished behind the closed doors. Why was he feeling the way he was toward the alien girl? Only his heart held the answer, and he was sure he would find out during the three day duration of his captivity.

 **There you go friends, hope you enjoyed as always. Once again please leave feedback or PM me.**

 **Next update will be in the next couple of days. stay tuned! C**


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